Back to Work

I have not been very active with the blog this month and I need to apologize but I have had a thousand issues come up in the past few weeks. Like many of you, I have been sick during much of December. I had the worst stomach virus of my life the first week of December. I have missed about ten days of radio work in my 16 years of hosting my show but missed two days earlier this month. This past weekend I fought off flu symptoms and another run in with stomach issues. At Christmas this year my nieces, sister, mom and dad got the flu. This was the first time we opened presents with surgical masks on.

This month I have spent a lot of time with Ryan as he prepares to go back to school after taking the fall semester off to rest from his rehab, so I knew I was going to miss some time from the blog. I spent a few days with Ryan in distributing $20,000 in checks to the four local charities as well.

Another factor has been the day job as we have had a lot of big days at the station in the last few weeks including turnover at the top. The extra time and meetings at the station has taken away writing time with the blog.

I had a good friend in Lance King pass away this month and spent some time away from the computer as a chance to go to Lance's funeral and reflect on his involvement in the Ryan Harless Foundation and his friendship in general.

Also, because of the mid-week holiday of Christmas and New Year's Day, I had planned for some downtime.

In summary, thanks for understanding and I look forward to feeling better and a great 2014.

Big Game, Different Reason

Friday's Orange Bowl is a huge game for the Clemson program. In many ways I look at it like I did for last year's game with LSU. A win over a program like LSU or Ohio State gives your program credibility. If you can play with the LSU's and OSU's of the world then you can play with anyone. These kinds of games are the ones that t-shirts are made about.

This year's game allows an opportunity to put the South Carolina loss in the rear view mirror again. Heading into the LSU game last year the feeling among much of the fan base was the 10-2 regular season was a disappointment. The LSU win changed that.

However, this game is big for a different reason than last year. This time last year we did not know that Nuk Hopkins was not coming back, so with the win over LSU it felt like it was the beginning of 2013 instead of the end of the 2012 season. We thought Clemson was returning Hopkins,
Tajh BoydTajh BoydRS Sr. Quarterback#10 6-1, 225Hampton, VAView Full Profile
,
Sammy WatkinsSammy WatkinsJr. Wide Receiver#2 6-1, 205Fort Myers, FLView Full Profile
and other major weapons heading into the 2013 season.

This year the Tigers' bowl game is the end of the line for players like Watkins and Boyd. Therefore, a win over Ohio State would be incredible but it would mean more to this season and not as much for next year.

I think Clemson's spring practice is going to be interesting and feel there will not be a huge drop off in 2014. But next season will feature so many new faces, I doubt anything Boyd does in this game will have a major effect on 2014.

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency

Prayer List

We have started a prayer list on the blog. Here are the guidelines:

If you are offended by prayer or prayer lists then I apologize in advance. The blog is free and the prayer list will be on the bottom of the page so you don’t have to read it.